Wednesday, May 24, 2017

When I last visited my family’s island 16 years
ago, I can’t remember a single café. I'm sure one existed, but coffee didn’t
interest me back then, neither did sitting outside in the shade and hanging out
with my family.

But on this trip I couldn’t wait to sample all the
new hip cafes tourists money helped build. In two weeks I thought I would
surely have enough time to sample them all, but time moves slowly on Ikaria,
and most days I couldn’t even go two blocks from the house because of so many
appointments with relatives nearby. When I did go to a café, it was kind of a
hassle. The ones on my side of the island are all in downtown Agio Kyrikos,
which is a 30-minute walk away. Being gone for a few hours from family was hard
to schedule, and often I didn’t get to go until late at night. Thankfully,
Greek cafes are open late, so the hours were not an issue.

As with all cafes on the island, outdoor seating is
the ambiance, and most cafes barely had any indoor seating at all – a nice
escape from usually rainy Portland.

Alecafe, Agios Kyrikos

The first café I visited on the island and the only
one I went to twice! The first times my father ordered filtered coffee that
came with a creamer that looked like buttermilk, and I got an iced cappuccino.
But the pistatio milkshake on the menu was too much to resist so I came back a
second time and got that too, along with a Greek-style coffee.

Senso, Agios Kyrikos

Senso is located right beside Alecafe which just
has much seating and a slightly more robust menu. I enjoyed by iced latte and
iced mocha (notice a theme here – not much reason to drink hot drinks under the
Mediterranean sun).

Mikro Café, Armenistis

I insisted we stop here after our long and arduous
road trip around the island and I am so glad we did. Located on the other side
of the island, this posh cafes feels worlds away from the standard shops in
Agios. They had a small but decadent menu featuring an iced chocolate, ice
cream espresso, and a honey bread snack.

Celeste Café, Evdilos

Another pleasant iced latte by the edge of the
ocean on the north side of the island. A relative small place with coffee
tables and lot of ashtrays, but still decent.

Taza Café, Agio Kyrikos

A second café on the strip in the capital, and it
had the coolest menu of all. We were there late at night and ordered a club
sandwich and amazing red velvet latte.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Two decades ago, my uncle built a small two bedroom
house on some land that my family owns on the island of Ikaria. My grandparents
had four children: the oldest lived on the other side of the island in a house
her husband built, the second oldest-my dad-moved to the United States, the
third oldest lived in Athens where he worked as a professor, and the youngest
lived in the house my grandparents built.

My uncle, the third oldest, built this small house
on the island so he would have a place to stay when he visited from Athens. At
the time his children were teenagers, so one bedroom had bunkbeds for them. The
bedrooms were only large enough to hold beds, but in the small houses there was
a bathroom, a shower, a small basic kitchen, and a living-dining room combo. It
also overlooked the ocean, which was just minutes away on foot down a rocky
hill.

Although the house was built to be a family
get-a-way, when I arrived in September of 2016, it had no been used in sixteen
years. The first few days were spent cleaning the interior, trimming the wild
thorny bushes that had consumed the outside, and draining and re-filling the
water tank. It was backbreaking work, but once it was done the house was
finally livable.

We spent several weeks here on our vacation. There
were some odd quirks, no doors on the bedrooms or bathrooms, sand mysteriously
creeping in no matter how much we swept, a few bug critters every now and then,
but there was so much to love.

Friday, May 12, 2017

My family’s island is only accessible two ways: by
a 10-hour ferry ride, or by a 45-minute flight. When I was a kid, we only ever
took the ferry. Back then there was a faster boat that could get us there in
four hours, but the company went under and now there is only the slow boat.
Even that way can be unreliable. The ferry workers strike often. The ships are
frequently delayed, sometimes for days.

Of course since I planned my trip so far in
advance, I chose to take the plane. Most Greeks travel by ship because it’s
cheaper (about 40-50 euros), compared to the plane (about 90-110 euros) and
because they often travel at the last minute, not wanting to plan so far in
advance. Both the plane and the ship only come once a day, and in the low
season, every other day.

I was excited not to have to spend 10 hours on a
swaying ferry. Having traveled often from Portland to Seattle by plane, I was
already accustomed to the small propeller jets used to fly short low distances.

We were lucky on this flight because the wind was
so mild. Sometimes the Ikarian wild, known as the Maltami, can be so ferocious
that planes have to abort landing. Fortunately for us it was smooth sailing
with not a single bump either way.

My review of Olympic Airlines is biased because I
feel a lot of pride in Greek companies. Of course the stewardesses were
gorgeous and the small sesame-honey snack they serve is delicious, and the view
from the plane is fantastic.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

The tiny island where my family is from has gotten quite famous over the years. Now there is a big tourist market and even websites and blogs about this place. But I went after the tourist season when the island seemed as calm and remote as I remember it.